Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to a mill-style blow molding mechanism and a method for operating the same. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a mill-style blow molding mechanism for blow molding paperboard packaging.
State of the Art
Blow molding has become an integral part of manufacturing plastic containers in the past few decades. In order to efficiently produce product in this industry, different methods or techniques have been utilized by manufactures. One of these methods is a rotary wheel blow molding systems which are typically used for the high-output production of a wide variety of plastic extrusion blow molded articles.
In conventional systems, these rotary wheels contain upwards of thirty molds depending on the size and features of the containers they are producing, and often feature continuously extruded parisons. Revolving sets of blow molds capture the parison or parisons as they pass over the extrusion head. Once the blow molds capture the parison or parisons, the molds are closed or sealed with some form of clamping force. Typically, these molds open and close horizontally thereby limiting the shape and size of the wheels and location and access to other manufacturing equipment that is utilized for the manufacturing process. In such configurations, the molds generally slide open and closed and thus take up a significant amount more space and are more cumbersome to operate. Additionally, these sliding mechanisms typically dictate that the shape of the blow mold must be trapezoidal rather than square. Trapezoidal shaped containers, however, increase the amount of plastic waste that is produced by the process between blow molded parts because of the gaps formed between the upper and lower corners. Therefore, there is a need for a blow molding wheel that is more efficient and can accept rectangular-shaped or rounded shaped three-dimensional parts to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the process and increase the overall efficiency